OpenAI Adds "Sponsored Agents" to ChatGPT Ads

OpenAI has added both a conversational feature and several measurement tools to ChatGPT ads at once. The most notable change is "Sponsored Agents," which lets users start a direct conversation with a brand after clicking an ad; it is currently being tested with a limited number of advertisers in the United States.

Behind this move is a fast-growing ad business. OpenAI said ChatGPT ads had reached an annualized revenue run rate of $1 billion as of August 31, with tens of thousands of advertisers using the platform.

Once a conversation starts through a Sponsored Agent, an ad label appears clearly on screen, and it runs separately from ChatGPT's regular answers and from a user's existing conversations. In this chat window, users can freely ask whatever they want to know about the product, then move on to the brand's website when they are ready.

OpenAI reiterated that ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers themselves, and that advertisers cannot access users' existing conversations.

Measurement features were also strengthened. Conversion optimization tied to impression-based billing is now generally available, and targeting can now be set separately across Android, iOS, and web. An attribution window, which determines how many days after a click a conversion still counts as a result, can be set to 7, 14, or 30 days, and a new "Event Quality Score" tool shows how reliable a given conversion event is.

Ad creation tools got just as much attention. A feature that has AI suggest ad copy and images based on a landing page and campaign goals is being tested, along with text customization that automatically adjusts headlines and descriptions to match the flow of a conversation.

Integrations with outside services expanded as well. A HubSpot integration lets advertisers connect leads generated from ads to customer data for tracking.

A Shopify integration is launching first in the U.S. and expanding to other countries within September. Merchants can use their existing product data to create campaigns, and manage them and check their performance in one place.

OpenAI described the update as an effort to redesign both how people interact with businesses in AI environments and how businesses create and manage ads using AI.

In Korea

This announcement is a test aimed at U.S. advertisers, and the source material does not confirm whether it applies to Korean-language ChatGPT users or advertisers in Korea. Marketers running ChatGPT ads in Korea can check whether Sponsored Agents has appeared on their account, and whether features like conversion optimization or attribution-window settings have also rolled out.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz, September 16, 2026. Checked September 17, 2026. Read the original